Impressionism Flashcards
Impressionism
- in context of time period, seemed incredibly radical; didn’t come by overnight (early to mid-1870s)
- product of earlier artists: Diego Valesca; Franz Hals; Francisco Goya; Eugène Delacroix; J.M. W. Turner; John Constable
- shorthand strokes of paint that coalesces and begins to blend
- shorthand application of paint, every stroke isn’t carefully blended together
- use of raw, brilliant colors
- attention to atmospheric details; meterology
- plain air vision: doing landscape from start to finish outdoors in presensce of nature
- traditionally, artists would do quick sketch of landscape,
- Boudon convinced Monet to paint outside
- plain air vision: start to finish doing landscape in presence of nature to capture the atmospheric, metereological, lighting accuracies
- French easle: light weight, portable; introduction of tube-paints, synthetically made oil colors made this possible
- bold, geometric simplification of some of the buildings
- Edouard Manet didn’t exhibit with impressionists, but was associated with it and admired by impressionists ; never formally joined that group but would flatten his composition
Who is Claude Monet
French artist who is very influential within impressionism
1874: first impressionists exhibitions
1886: 30 artists participated (Renoir, Cezane [who later rebelled], Monet, Degas
origianlly not called impressionism: annonymous group of painters, sculptures, engraveres
critic nicknamed Monet’s painting as impressionistic; originally used in derogatory way, but then they adopted it as their name
Father was grocer, wanted him to be a lawyer
made living by doing caricatures
wife died prematurely
What is this painting?
Claude Monet Impression, Sunrise (1872)
Monet’s Impression Sunrise Analysis
no strict lines, not carefully delinated, hazy, blurry
subjects of different lighting, atmospheric conditions, outdoor light, colors
mixing strokes should be done by viewer not artist
loved sun illumination; artists were becoming aware of color theory; Chvereul wrote profusely on color theory; primary colors; what are colors? white reflects all light, black absorbs all light
impresssionists as painters who capture light; Monet banished the color black from his palet; to darken colors, he would mix complementary colors
instead of using tones canvases, impressionists used white canvases
worked wet on wet; while paint was still wet, he would apply more instead of letting it dry
variation of realism: impressionists depicted scenes from their own time period, focusing on happy things; realists focused on darker subject matters like executions and toil; impressionists focused on happy things
in 1890: outdoor light, color; Monet would do a series of paintings with the same subject, but in different atmospheric conditions, paying attention to how the scene would alter based on atmospheric conditions
Monet would paint beautiful scenes but some encroachment of industrialization evident in some paintings
light impressionism: landscape paintings (Monet)
Edgar Degas
applied impressionism to figure composition (figure impressionism)
most classicistic, academic, very formal training in traditional techniques; was familiar with John Ange (Ange told Degas, “Draw lines, many lines”)
Manet and Degas were contemporaries
What is this painting?
Edgar Degas Foyer of the Opera (1872)
Degas’ Foyer of the Opera Analysis
ballerina’s tutu colors are not carefully blended (not nearly as gesteral as Monet)
Balerinas are not idealized; some are shown in awkward positions
snapshot of practice; scene of instantaneous vision (quick impression of the scene)
key hole vision: figures are unwared that they are being drawn; “slice of life” effect (this is how we really see life in reality)
open doorway: just a hit of what’s going on inside; we can just barely see is much more enticing
in the center of the composition is a void; figures are on outer edge with many more figures on righthand side
occult balance: something that defies explanation; not balance of physical weight but balance of visual interest;
on lefthand side, more vigorously illuminated and the figures are actually dancing, moving
unconvetional forms of composition;new ways to see balance (chair in the center of the room provides continous triangles)
1867: universal exposition in Paris; different countries had their pavilion and everyone wanted to see the Japanese exposition; in their paintings, most of the physical weight was on the left side but details (Fuji/sailors) about to get swamped; balance not physical weight but areas of interest –nontraditional symmetry
sometimes cropped figures (cut off legs of a horse)
stationary objects versus objects in motions
Henri de Toulousse-Lautrec
had royal, aristocratic heritage both from mothers and father’s side
dwarfish in stature; legs never kept up with body; insecure with body
often went to Moulin Rouge (night spots tend to have segregation of people types and he could observe all dipsarate aspects of society come together)
in his drawings, he used the minimum amount of lines to depict the strange forms
What is this print?
Henri de Toulouse-Loutrec Le Divan Japonais (1893)
Toulouse-Loutrec Analysis
most posters before this used to have clear distinction between text and image; but here, the text and image are combined
flatten the composition; abruptly crop her, creating interesting negative shapes between figures
lithographs: highly polished pieces of limestone; draw with oily crayon; water on surface; water doesn’t go over the oil; put ink over it; ink will go into oil; put that through the press
figure impressionism; slice of life
posters were plastered everywhere
color lithography: paint doesnt go into stone, but lies on the surface
dot patterns on lithograph: flicking ink on surface and plate
thin ink to watercolor-apply with brush onto place
